The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsStar Trek: the alternate timeline angle: BRILLIANT!
J.J. Abrams asked the questions of his creative staff when he began this Star Trek movie odyssey, Can we make it cool? and How can we make it for everyone? He certainly answered the first question in the decidedly affirmative and accomplished the second query when he created this marvelous film. The acting is incredible with actors that have the same magical chemistry...

1.0 out of 5 starsOverdose of Stupidity
Warning: This movie should be restricted to persons 18 years of age or YOUNGER. This movie is an insult to the Star Trek legacy. An overdose of bizarre technology right from the start, a strange plot and stranger actors. I was tempted to trash it after the first 5 minutes, but let it continue hoping for some improvement or clarity. But I finally clicked it off when the...

As entertainment this reimagining of Star Trek delivers great action, and great surprises. It's quite exciting to see the familiar characters being reintroduced and played by new actors.

One hopes that Abrams who brought us Lost and Alias, and wrote space epic Armageddon would take the treasure that is Star trek, and boldly go where no one has gone before. By that I do mean not going where he has gone with Lost, which had me totally confused, with myriad time travel plot lines, who the good and bad guys areguy, but going somewhere fresh, new and exciting.

JJ Abrams has done a great job first time at bat with this franchise. The actors playing the lead roles Pine as Kirk, Quinto as Spock, and Urban as McCoy all do incredible jobs. The Spock character is by far the best developed, and when you see the movie you will understand why.

Part of what I loved about this movie was the paradox. For instance, Time Travel. It was fun picking apart the logic afterwards.

Romulan villain Nero travels back in time, to avenge the destruction of his planet Romulus, destroyed by a supernova (exploding star).

The very fact that Nero can travel back in time, means that he can save his planet, which at the time of this Star Trek still exists, yet he does not.

Nero waits 25 years for Spock to emerge from the time space continuum, which in Spock time is only 5 minutes. How long would you wait for someone to turn up? If you're like me, not that long.

Nero attacks Star fleet before Kirk is born. If he can travel through time, then why does he wait until Kirk is all grown up before launching his next attack?

I was surprised by the Romulan ship, all these walkways high in the air with no safety handrails. Someone could fall off. They have time travel, can destroy planets, have red matter, but no safety rails.

Kobayashi Maru Simulation

In order to pass this test and become a star fleet captain, you must fail the test. Nobody has ever passed the test. Yet there are star fleet captains. Kirk has failed the test twice, before becoming the first person to beat the test. How many times must one be allowed to take the test and fail, before one is deemed to pass the test?

When he beats the test designed by Spock, he is put on trial for cheating. Spock designed the simulation to test the fear response, so how can someone who has no emotions be the arbiter of someone else's emotions.

Using that standard Spock is unqualified to be a starship commander, yet Spock is a commander. Wouldn't Spock have to pass his own test, and therefore with his advance knowledge would he not achieve the same result as Kirk who he accuses of cheating by cheating? I enjoyed how screwed up this whole thing was.

The movie felt a little off in two places, one was the Uhura storyline, so vaguely told as to be semi apologetic. The other I felt was capturing Kirk, portrayed here as a hedonistic thrill seeker. It's unlikely that anyone in a captain role would take the risks he takes. That's what crew members are for.

It has to be said that I have seen the movie more than once, as there was so much action, it was difficult to take it all in in one go.

I think it is superb entertainment. I think if you love the previous series and movies, you will also love this refreshing take. I hope this was helpful.

J.J. Abrams asked the questions of his creative staff when he began this Star Trek movie odyssey, Can we make it cool? and How can we make it for everyone? He certainly answered the first question in the decidedly affirmative and accomplished the second query when he created this marvelous film. The acting is incredible with actors that have the same magical chemistry working together that the cast of the original Star Trek series had. Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine are perfect mirror images in both demeanor and appearance of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner playing the starring roles of Spock and Captain James T. Kirk respectively. I was particularly impressed with the versatility of Zachary Quinto's acting skills, because Spock in this film is a vastly different character than the one I have enjoyed seeing him play in the television series Heroes where he is the unpredictable villain-turned-hero Sylar. The rest of the talented cast members do not disappoint either.

The second disk in this set is fascinating. It includes deleted scenes which I would love to see eventually incorporated into the film. While they were not absolutely necessary, those scenes added meaning to the storyline of the movie. There are also wonderful interviews and some behind-the-scenes peeks into the creative process of producing this film. There is a casting feature that gives us an insightful look into the complicated process of finding the talented actors willing to make the attempt to fill some big shoes and emulate the iconic actors that started the Star Trek phenomenon.

What I loved most was the direction that J.J. Abrams took in developing this new Star Trek adventure. I have been a Star Trek fan since the original series first aired in 1966 when I was 10 years old. My mother, father, brother and I all watched it together as a family every week when each new episode aired. I have seen every episode of all five of the series created for television as well as all eleven now of the movies produced for the silver screen. I was only sad that they did not produce a movie to conclude Star Trek: Voyager with Chakotay marrying Seven-of-Nine. Oh, well! I was devastated, however, when the television producers called it quits after Star Trek: Enterprise. It was my great joy, however, to see J.J. Abrams bypass the problems associated with prequel productions by inventing an alternate time-line for the original Star Trek storyline in this movie. That brilliant maneuver made it possible to create an entirely new and different story while still maintaining the spirit of the original show along with the development of the characters and their relationships with one another. It also leaves the creators with limitless freedom to come up with more new stories. I truly hope that they will not stop with this movie and will go on to give us more Star Trek in series form on television. I and my children have grown up with Star Trek, and I would love to see my grandchildren do so as well. If not, this movie is still a very worthwhile experience, and it was great fun to wander the decks of the Enterprise again.

After posting the comments above, I decided to read the other reviews that have been posted here. I was shocked by the many vehement criticisms of the visual effects in this movie. So, I have decided to add this postscript. Personally, I thought the special effects were stunning, but then I am also an avid book reader and a published author, so perhaps visual effects are not as important to me as they are to others who prefer visual forms of entertainment. Even so, however, the original Star Trek series was never about visual effects. It was about the well developed stories which included complex larger-than-life characters. In fact, when the network television moguls tried their best to kill off Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry's budget for visual effects was cut leaving him with little more than cardboard and paper mache to create his sets with. Cheesy primitive sets still did not stop the fans from watching the stories created in the ensuing episodes. Since those tactics did not work the network canceled the series outright, but did that stop the adoring fans? It certainly did not, and the network offices were inundated with literally millions of letters demanding more Star Trek.

When the entertainment industry decided that the fans could not be ignored, they appropriated proper funding for better visual effects for the movies and new series that followed. No one will deny that better visual effects make watching Star Trek a lot more fun, but unless you have a great story to tell no amount of money and time spent on visual effects is going to make it worth watching. This movie is a truly great story. Even Leonard Nimoy, who had decided that he would never play the part of Spock again after the few episodes he guest starred in during Star Trek: The Next Generation, was moved nearly to tears when he was presented with this story line and realized that J.J. Abrams and his creative team really understood what the original Star Trek was all about. Then he enthusiastically put his ears back on and took on the role of his endearing character, Spock, once more.

The future begins in J.J. Abrams “high-octane hit” ‘STAR TREK’ that has taken audience by storm. When the Romulan Nero comes from the future to take revenge on the Federation, rivals Kirk and Spock must work together to stop him from destroying everything they know. On an “exhilarating” journey filled with “spectacular action,” comedy and cosmic peril, the new recruits of the U.S.S. Enterprise will voyage through unimaginable danger, boldly going where no one has gone before. “Even if you’ve never seen ‘Star Trek’ before, this movie is for you!”

Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Rebooting old film franchises is all the rage in Hollywood these days. When a once-popular film series starts to lose its lustre and outlive its usefulness, the time may come to hit the Reset button and start over fresh. This strategy worked wonders for both Batman and James Bond. Superman really could have benefited from the same, but unfortunately the non-reboot quasi-sequel we got instead disappointed on many levels. Still stinging from that one, the studio behind it is currently discussing the reboot option for its next attempt.

But when is a reboot not really a reboot? Is it possible for a movie to be a linear sequel, a prequel, and also a reboot all at the same time? That's the conundrum posed by the newly-revamped 'Star Trek.' The title alone boldly declares its intentions. This isn't 'Star Trek XI'. It's just 'Star Trek' full stop. Start over. Reboot. And yet, it's also not. Can a film have it both ways? In this case, amazingly, yes.

Truth be told, it took a lot of cojones on Paramount's part to even contemplate the prospect of rebooting its venerable 'Star Trek' franchise. Undeniably, 'Trek' was on pretty shaky ground in recent years. The last movie, 'Nemesis,' was its first outright box office bomb. And the most recent TV series, 'Enterprise', was cancelled due to poor ratings. Nevertheless, 'Trek' still boasts an enormous and famously ill-tempered fan base that doesn't take easily to change or to disruptions in the series' labyrinthine canon, and starting over. Could any film manage the near-impossible task of appeasing old fans while attracting new ones? That was the challenge laid out for director J.J. Abrams and his writers. The solution they came up with is really quite ingenious.

Plans for a prequel film that would revisit younger versions of the "Original Crew" characters Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and others during their Starfleet Academy days had been in discussions at least as far back as 1990. For various reasons, the project was scrapped. For their reboot, J.J. Abrams and company decided to revive that concept, but also cleverly tied it to the original continuity via the convenient excuse of time travel. In the new story, a villainous Romulan named Nero [Eric Bana] from the 'Next Generation' era has travelled back in time to the early 23rd Century and set in motion a chain of events that will change history and directly affect the life of young James T. Kirk. Thus, all of the events of the 'Star Trek' that fans have followed for four decades still happened, while this new movie creates an alternate, parallel timeline. "Whatever our lives might have been, if the time continuum was disrupted, our destinies have changed," Spock explains. This avoids the pitfalls of a typical prequel, in which the fates of all the characters are already set in stone. Anything can happen in this new timeline. The entire history of 'Star Trek' has just shot off in another direction.

The opening scene sets the tone. From out of nowhere, the Federation Starship U.S.S. Kelvin is set upon and attacked by a gigantic Romulan vessel of superior technology. The ship's captain is taken prisoner and executed, leaving First Officer George Kirk in command. Meanwhile, Kirk's pregnant wife is in the throes of labour on a lower deck. This culminates in a huge battle simultaneous with the birth of their son James. The scene is epic in scope, operatic in emotions, and immediately declares the movie's agenda to wilfully break with 'Trek' canon. It's utterly fantastic. From that point, the film jumps ahead to show the rebellious Jim's youth in Iowa and enlistment in Starfleet Academy, where he meets important characters such as McCoy, Spock, and Uhura. Eventually, he winds up on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise right as Nero returns to launch the second phase of his diabolical plan. Naturally, out of all of Starfleet, only our crew of fresh-faced cadets will have what it takes to oppose this threat.

In a project like this, casting is critical. If the audience can't believe that these young actors are portraying the iconic characters they've known and loved for decades, the entire film will fall apart. It's in this regard that J.J. Abrams takes his biggest risk and scores his greatest coup. I don't know where the director found Chris Pine. The actor (smartly) makes a conscious decision to avoid any overt Shatner impressions, which would almost certainly come across as terribly corny. And yet, without at all seeming like William Shatner, he very much embodies all the characteristics of James Kirk – his charisma and his cockiness, his smug self-satisfaction and his irresistible magnetism, his hot-headed temper and brilliant tactical mind. If Pine's performance had at all missed the mark, he could have derailed the movie. Somehow, it just works. When I first heard that Karl Urban, the tough-guy villain from 'The Chronicles of Riddick' and 'The Bourne Supremacy', had been cast as Leonard "Bones" McCoy, I couldn't imagine how he'd pull it off. I'm glad to say that I was mistaken. Urban absolutely nails the character's acerbic wit and homespun charm. He couldn't possibly be better.

This new 'Star Trek' is almost all about the action. It's (mostly) well-plotted and has excellent character development, but lacks the philosophical depth of the best 'Trek' outings. The film does the seemingly impossible and it makes 'Star Trek' a great deal of fun and relevant again in the 21st Century. Paramount's big gamble paid off. The movie was a huge box office hit (the biggest in the franchise's history). Unlike some of 2009's other big money-makers, it scored widespread praise from both critics and audiences. And of course the sequel ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’ in 3-D which has now been released and will be reviewing this also. Let's just hope that the franchise series can keep up the momentum for many years to come.

Blu-ray Video Quality – As if there had been any reason to doubt, 'Star Trek' looks totally brilliant on Blu-ray. Personally, I think it looks better than several other recent high-profile releases. Some viewers may take issue with the director's overuse of lens flares shining directly into the camera, but there's little denying that the 1080p transfer captures all of his stylistic affectations just as he'd want them. Likewise, a number of close-ups on the Enterprise Bridge were shot with wide-angle lenses and appear slightly stretched. That's not a transfer flaw. It was evident in cinemas as well.

For the most part, the 2.40:1 image is very sharp and detailed. Many close-ups are amazingly vibrant. However, in certain parts of the movie, especially during the first half, shots with visual effects seem slightly less detailed than those without. This probably has to do with the resolution at which they were rendered and composited. It's never a dramatic drop-off, but is somewhat noticeable on a large screen. That problem works itself out as the film goes along. By the last hour, just about everything looks virtually flawless.

The picture has vivid colours and great contrast throughout. The black of space is suitably inky, yet shadow detail is well defined. A little bit of film grain is apparent and appears unprocessed. 'Star Trek' is a good-looking movie that will make terrific home theatre eye candy, even on large projection screens.

Blu-ray Audio Quality – I've been watching a lot of high-octane action and sci-fi pictures lately, the type of movies where loudness is valued as the most important aspect of sound design, and deafening cacophonies are used to bludgeon the audiences' senses. I'd seen 'Star Trek' in the cinema and knew it to be another action-packed film. Firing it up in my home theatre, I set my expectations (and my Pioneer A/V receiver's volume) accordingly. Listening in the home environment, what struck me the most about this soundtrack is just how well balanced it is. The mix certainly has plenty of dynamic range, but never does the dialogue sound suppressed in comparison to overly-loud music or sound effects. All of the levels are appropriate, not obnoxious.

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack features bold and brassy music that swells up very nicely. Directional effects and bass rumble are smoothly integrated. Sound effects like the phasers are crisply recorded. Listen closely, and you'll also hear plenty of classic 'Trek' noises and effects subtly integrated into the soundscape. The action scenes build up to tremendous power. The surround channels buzz with excitement, and the subwoofer gets a workout as well. This is just a great soundtrack all around.

Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:

Commentary by J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelot and Robert Orci: Director J.J. Abrams, producers Bryan Burk & Damon Lindelof, and writers Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci (all recorded together) have a great rapport in this fast-paced, information-packed commentary. Among the topics discussed are script development, 'Trek' canon and continuity, last-minute editorial changes, and tailoring the film to appeal to women. This is a consistently interesting and engaging track.

BD-Live Feature – NASA News: With this feature, viewers may access an RSS news feed from the NASA web site.

Finally, the 'Star Trek' reboot accomplishes the nearly-impossible task of resetting the dial on a widely-beloved franchise that was clearly past its prime, while both respecting old fans and inviting new ones. If not a perfect film by any means, it's a tremendous amount of fun. The Blu-ray excels in every area, from video and audio, but sadly on this Region B/2 Blu-ray the supplements are a little sparse, compared to the Region A/1 Blu-ray disc 'Star Trek.' But despite this, it is a fantastic Blu-ray and I have viewed it several times and I still get excited watching it, as there is so much going on, you miss stuff and it has now gone pride of place in my Blu-ray Collection. Very Highly Recommended!

Starfleet is made aware of a strange electrical storm, which turns out to be more than a storm. Oops it's a trap and George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth) acting captain for 12 minutes, must sacrifice himself to save his crew. On this day was born James Tiberius Kirk. Kirk who leads a rambunctious childhood must find and fulfill his destiny.

He will unite with other characters with which Trekkies can relate. For people new to the genre the story itself sustainable and does not require any previous knowledge of the story or the characters.

This is a great addition to the Star Trek tradition. They left no stone unturned all the major characters and the Gene Roddenberry feel is included. The CGI did not overwhelm the basic story. Parts my look like a power plant in Long Beach. Moreover, do we get Budweiser name recognition?

There will always be people that will ether not watch this presentation or dis the story as growing up with the original TV or movies have no intention of rewriting the story in their minds. That is too bad that they will miss out. However, I understand, as I cannot stand to watch anything past the first three Starwars presentation. However is suggest you give this presentation, a chance as you may find that it has all the same energy philosophy and dialog that made the original.

I've only seen the Blu-Ray version so I cannot compare versions however, the DVD was proud of itself being Blu-Ray and we have to sit through several minutes of coming attractions. The extras include the obligatory commentary by J. J. Abrams, Brian Burke, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, and Roberto Orci. There is also a BD-live option.

All the other extras can fill a review in themselves. Most of the added material is duplicated in other presentations but it is interesting to look at the shooting locations.

I bought the DVD from Amazon and was delighted to see it being seen by my daughter and her friends a number of times. It makes a valuable addition to my collection.

Reviewers before me have done such a massive job on reviewing this movie in a historical context that I can't possibly add anything value adding enough. I am going to say just two things in its favour.

Firstly, at the cost of repetition, the effects are great. Growing up watching re-runs of original Star Trek series in the mid-80s,The Next Generation series in the 90s, and all the Star Trek movies, I was aware that special effects are not the hallmark of Star Trek movies. I became a fan of Voyager series just because of the special effects. I knew that effects had to be big this time. The movie did not disappoint me at all.

Secondly and more importantly, if the Franchise was aiming at attracting a whole new generation of Star Trek fans then it has been totally successful. When I went to see the movie in an IMAX theatre in Mississauga with my two teenaged children, I observed thousands of kids, teenagers, and young adults standing in queues to watch the movie. It certainly felt good. Furthermore, all these youngsters had a very good opinion about the story, the effects, and especially the cast. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg are actors that the youngsters can relate to. These actors are heart-throbs of the younger folks.

I personally know of some youngsters who watched the movie as many as 5 times on big screen alone. I am proud to say that we have new torch bearers for the Star Trek movies and new generation of Trekkies. It is for this reason alone I am assigning this product a 5 star.

I have been a die hard fan of Star Trek since I watched the first epsiode of ST:TNG. After that I started scouring the channels to find the original series. After that I was glued to DS9 and Voyager (say what you will about them). Most of that devotion was due to the constantly evolving universe that is Star Trek. Any Trekkie will tell you that you get very involved in the history. You know the key events in the histories of the different races. You know who did what and when and what the outcome was. All of that and more has created the Star Trek universe that for the past 44 years has mesmorized countless fans.

Then along comes J.J. Abrams. He takes all of that 44 years of history and basically erases it in one fell swoop. He uses a time travel story to restart the universe. TIME TRAVEL!!! A story device that has been used in ST too many times to count. The only difference is that in every other use of it, the "timeline" is preserved. Not in this movie. The timeline is drastically altered and their is no mention of a fix or a way to get it back to the status quo. As a fan, to watch all of the episodes and previous movies basically go up in smoke drove me mad. How could he do this? How could Paramount allow this? Is there a petition somewhere that I can sign to fix this? The worst part of all...?

This was a really good movie! It had an engaging story that was reminiscent of ST:TOS with more action and less technical talk. It had a good cast that was true to the spirt of the original cast. Obviously the special effects were top notch. It even had a dose of Spock for us that needed it.

Am I upset that this movie has radically changed the Star Trek universe in ways that we cannot yet determine? Yes. Do I recognise that the ST franchise was in danger of becoming stale and needed a change to be relevant to futures audiences. Yes.

I'm saddened that "my" Star Trek may be gone but happy to see it continue in ways that will be equally exciting, and hopefully, lasting.

The characters are introduced one by one in an interesting way, when they are young, as usual in that kind of sci-fi movie. The story is great, the pictures are nice and 2 hours flow smoothly. The actors are good and they get intense at times, making me a bit anxious, feeling the stress. I will probably watch it again with my son. Time well spent on this rather cold rainy day. Not a big fan of Star Trek, I did enjoy this one.

I watched in the cinema and since then I've wanted to buy the Blu-ray. I really liked the way the characters are portraited in the movie because it reminds me of the original characters of the series and I also think that the choice of actors was very good. A lot of my friends didn't want to watch it because they were afraid that they would not understand the story, but this movie can be seen as an action movie, so even if the person doesn't know very much about the original series, it will love this movie. I really like it and I can watch it over and over again.

I am by far, not much of a fan of the Star Trek things. Sure I enjoyed the Borgs in Star Trek Voyager and The Next Generation, but that about sums it up for me.

I went to see this movie, knowing very little about the original Star Trek characters. I knew of the name Kirk, McCoy and Spock, that's about it. So I found this movie very intriguing, no boring moments what so ever. When the movie ended, I was almost disappointed that it came to an end! I wanted to watch more and more.